Ministry

Hot off the heels of my frustration with SparkLife, I decided to tackle Ricky Gervais’s “Holiday Message.” Due to its length, I will skip some stuff. I don’t feel like I’ve skipped anything particularly crucial, but correct me if I’m wrong. Let me also say that I think Gervais is a fantastic comedian. I love The Office and Extras.

One of my students recently referred me to a post on the SparkLife blog called “Life as an Atheist.” After reading the article, I remained annoyed, so I decided to post the article here and offer up some thoughts.

Most of us here this, and consider what Christ is commanding you to do in Matthew 7:12 (aka “The Golden Rule). However, in considering Thomas Merton’s meditations on the nature of hatred in chapter 10 of New Seeds of Contemplation (“A Body of Broken Bones”), a new way of interpreting the Golden Rule strikes me.

I’m re-reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, and, to be quite frank, I am blown away by my own lack of spiritual life and understanding. Allow me to make three brief points inspired by Merton…

Houston Christian High School, under the auspices of a program called Project 20/20, is working towards developing a relationship with a school on each continent. At the moment, our first school is Joma Methodist Primary School in the village of Joma not far from Accra, the capital of Ghana. On July 21st, 2010, nine members of the HCHS community (three teachers, the chaplain, and five students) traveled to Joma to work with students and teachers there.

Recently, I listened to a 2005 episode of This American Life called “Heretics,” an episode in two acts that follows the rise and subsequent fall of American pastor Bishop Carlton Pearson, an Oral Roberts protégé. After enjoying incredible success as an evangelist, Pearson’s community deserted him in the wake of his decision to start preaching a version of universalism that he developed called “The Gospel of Inclusion.” Pearson lit upon his new understanding while watching a television report about violence in Rwanda. During this report he claims to have had a conversation with God who told him that we’d all gotten it wrong.

I’m horrible at prayer. I don’t make it a priority; I can be uncomfortable, and I often feel that discomfort because I feel exposed and open — sort of like Frodo when he puts on the One Ring and can feel the lidless eye of Sauron, ever-watching atop Barad-dûr, consuming him (see image below). Don’t get the Lord of the Rings reference? Well, that might be a good thing. Read on anyway…

My lovely and talented wife, Natalie Hebert (check her website out) has a photo feature and an article featured at Living Water International’s (LWI) website. The photo spread and the article were created during her recent trip with LWI to Guatemala. Check it out: Photo Feature: Like a Child

We often refer to Scripture as “The Word of God” or more simply “The Word.” Here we have a tome that contains within it the very Word of God, the Word from John 1, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. However, like Jesus who took on the trappings of man, took on the limitations of humanity, humbling himself in order to make himself more accessible to us, Scripture too has been humbled so that we can understand it.

New Testament texts were written roughly twenty centuries ago. Is it possible that some of the messages contained therein were not meant for a 21st century crowd? Or is it possible that some of those messages weren’t really meant for a 1st century crowd but are enormously important to those of us living in the 21st century? Quite the conundrum.